Pre Race Update

I had Avastin treatment #2 Thursday. All went well. The latest schedule is MRI12/13, back to Duke for a doctor's appointment 12/16. New round of vaccines start first of the year. I am anxious to start the vaccinations again, but I am also glad to have the short break from the monthly trips to Raleigh.

Marti has also gotten a well deserved break. She returned from a week in Florida yesterday

I have decided, with some gentle encouragement from a couple of close friends, to participate in the half marathon Sunday. I say participate because I am afraid it would be a misnomer to say I am going to run.

I am also adhering to no shave November. I had a co-worker stop me earlier this week to ask me if I was tired. She later clarified that she realized I had not shaved and thought maybe I had overslept. Let me just add I have not shaved since Monday and today is Friday and I can count on one hand the number of people who have noticed.

As always thank you so much for caring. Your prayers and well wishes help more than you can possibly know.

This Stuff Only HappensTo Me

OK, so today was my first IV of Avastin.  So far I have tolerated it well (of course it has only been about 3 hours since I finished).  They did give me a  prescription for an anti-nausea medicine but so far I feel fine. 

This is where it gets interesting. 

For those of you who do not me well, however if you have been reading this blog for 2 years you actually know everything there is to know. At any rate I have a fairly weak stomach on a good day. I have been known to change a dirty diaper by positioning the child in front of me and a large fan behind me, so the odor would be blown away from me. So with that background I can tell you about my ride home from work tonight. 

I am sitting at a stoplight with a mini van in front of me and I notice the passenger side door open and an elderly lady (about Marti's age) got out and the sliding door was open and then I noticed someone had puked all over the street. 

Thanks again for caring and I promise the rest of these post will be readable at dinner time.

Sent from my iPad

My sister reminded me last night that I did not do a post for day 2 at Duke last week.  So here goes….

But first we have had a great weekend.  Sam was sworn as an attorney in Kentucky. And as part of the oath he had to swear he had never been part of a dual. John had to make the same promise when he was sworn in a few years ago.  I am glad they did not ask me because if you weren't dualing what were you two doing when you methodically tore up our furniture as you were growing up. I distinctly remember a time or two when "I am going to kill you" came just before " I am telling Mom".  Also we went to two weddings (I missed both ceremonies but made it to both receptions - It doesn’t get any better than that).

Now back to the matter at hand.  Yesterday I decided I am not going to be ready to run the half marathon in November, I am going to have to wait until March to run another one.  I am still doing some running; I got about 6 in yesterday, but not nearly enough to run 13 miles in 3 weeks.  The 2 month turnaround is just not enough time.  What an excuse.

This week I will start the Avastin IV on  Thursday which is a protein that should help in the fight against the cancer.  I don’t think there will be major side effects with this procedure. The first cycle will be 4 hours. 

I am still not sure when we return to Duke for the start of this vaccine cycle. 

I am sorry there is not much information in this post but again thanks for caring enough to check in, more information including Duke schedule, when we hear.        

FOLLOW UP TO MY POST A FEW MINUTES AGO

I went to the site I suggested you go to find out more about this study and there really is not much information about it, if you really want to know just let me know I have 13 pages of stuff, that really would only be pertinent if you are going through this, I really hope you NEVER need this information.

For those of you keeping score at home this was day 1 at Duke for post-surgery follow up and to try and get into a new trail (new for me) called RESTART.  It is specifically for recurrent tumors.   By the way the first trial I was in did EXACTLY what it was supposed to do, i.e. fight the protein that caused this SOB to begin with and the cells it did not kill, it changed their makeup, however still cancerous and nefarious.  So the new fight starts tomorrow.  Which means since the makeup of the cancerous cells have changed the original vaccine would no longer be effective.

If you are so inclined the pertinent information is at Duke Clinical Trials, search brain cancer and the study is Recurrent GBM Stem Cell Tumor Amplified RNA Immunotherapy Trial, or you can copy and paste this link in you browser.  And if you do this and actually read it, seriously consider getting a life.

If you do not read the stuff on the Duke site I will not be offended, the layman’s version is they are ampping up my white blood cells with a protein (Avastin) so my own immune system will be able to fight this disease.  

Tomorrow, or day 2 at Duke will consist of me going through a process called leukaphersis, or basically I am receiving a blood transfusion of my own blood. Huh?

Blood is drawn out of my left arm, much like when you give blood then run through a magic box, and the white blood cells are cultivated and the red blood cells returned to me in my right arm.  It is a 4 hour process.

For those of you that really want the details see the second paragraph of this epistle focusing primarily on the last sentence of that paragraph.

Why am I doing this blog entry and not either of the dynamic duo aka Sam/Sarah? Good question.

Their literary talents have clearly been exposed as wanting, not from a lack of trying at Danville High School or Hanover College but obviously something has dulled their senses. Sarah has an excuse now that she is THRITY, no such excuse for Samuel, although I suspect I know what is causing Sam to regress.

Again the treatments and message we are receiving here are very positive and everyone is very encouraging.

I have gained 2 pounds so it is time to kick the training into high gear.

As always thank you for taking the time and for caring enough to read this nonsense.

Gray day is back!

My cousin's wife, Shea, sent this fantastic picture of their three children. 

Let's be honest. You were tired of seeing people in all those brightly colored clothes.

In related news, my brother John has informed me that rumor has it that UK is wearing gray uniforms against Florida this week. The blog is getting some real influence.

Gray day at FNB to close us out!

Oh, what's that? You want MORE from Farmers Bank? Well, you're in luck!

The Stanford branch also looks good in gray.